A trip to the park. A day at the beach. A workout session at the gym. All in public spaces where smart glasses can snap photos, record conversations or stream video online — without people in the line of their lenses and microphones knowing about it.
Norway's government wants to get a handle on both the promise and peril of AI glasses and is proposing that parliament enact a temporary ban on them in some places.
It's the latest sign of growing concern in many countries about new technologies that are fundamentally changing the way people live. Some governments have banned the use of social media by children and young teens.
Norway’s government said the proposal for the temporary ban will be made to parliament, the Storting, “as soon as possible.”
A key question is where to draw the line.
Norwegian authorities say a ban on the use of smart glasses could apply to places where “privacy is particularly important,” like healthcare facilities, or fitness centers with changing rooms and showers. A major focus is spaces where children congregate, such as schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and youth clubs.
But it could extend to public concerts and sports events, plus parks, beaches, museums and shopping centers.
A temporary ban would give authorities time to decide what types of devices might be affected, and debate whether permanent regulation is needed. The government was quick to note that it was not proposing a total ban and said such devices should still be allowed in some places and for private use.
The government also said it was considering exceptions to a ban for vulnerable groups, so that “socially beneficial uses” of smart glasses could be permitted in some circumstances.
Adam Smith, a technology advocacy officer at Britain-based Privacy International, said Norway's move was "a welcome protection against big tech’s greedy attempts to extract ever more data, often in absence of any thought for the privacy or rights of others.”
“No reality exists in which people expect to be secretly surveilled going about their daily lives,” he said.
One effort to rein in the use of AI glasses has run aground — in the home of Silicon Valley.
California's governor last week vetoed legislation that would have penalized the use of smart glasses to record people without their permission in places like changing rooms, doctor’s offices and other spaces people generally consider private.
Meta, the company behind Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram that has rolled out AI glasses with eyewear vendor Ray-Ban, encourages respect for privacy and advises customers on how to use the glasses responsibly.
“Respect people’s preferences. Not everyone loves being photographed. Stop recording if anyone expresses that they would rather you not,” Meta wrote on its site.
The tech giant based in Menlo Park, California, says a light on the glasses indicates when recording in underway, and if the glasses detect that the light has been blocked or physically tampered with, the camera is automatically disabled.
Despite such advice and assurances, some privacy advocacy groups cite a growing backlash against AI glasses.
Hans Anders, a prominent eyewear retailer in the Netherlands, has suspended sales of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
“This decision follows the ongoing public and political debate surrounding smart glasses and the questions being raised about the conditions under which this technology can be used,” Hans Anders said in a statement, suggesting that it plans to await the outcome of the debate before making a final decision.
In Britain, the UK Cinema Association said in August it was introducing policies to prohibit or restrict the wearing of camera-enabled smart glasses, citing concerns about privacy and film piracy through the use of such technology.
FILE - Michael Mcloughlin, of El Confidencial, gets a demonstration of Gemini on Android XR glasses at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government began a major offensive Monday against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on the country's Red Sea coast, under an intensified air campaign by the Saudi-led coalition.
The offensive came just after the rebels said they had captured more territory in the southwestern part of Yemen, taking a key town in a blow to the Saudi-backed forces as they advanced toward a strategic provincial capital in the region.
The Saudi-led coalition spokesman, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, said 100 fighter jets were providing support to the forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government fighting against the Houthis. He said the coalition has secured “air protection” of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait and destroyed hundreds of Houthi targets as part of the ongoing campaign.
The campaign and its details could not be immediately independently verified.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that it was expected that the Saudi-backed government in Yemen would hit back at the rebels to reclaim territory. Asked if the Saudi-led coalition coordinated the action with the United States, Rubio said that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have a defense agreement but wouldn’t offer more details.
He said the Yemeni government was ousted from some of its territory by a Houthi campaign and the Saudis have come under attack, and “they have a right to defend themselves."
The U.S. has provided support to Saudi Arabia in its ongoing campaign against the Houthis, according to a regional official and a U.S. official. This U.S. support included intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for the offensive, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to reporters.
The U.S. had supported the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis early in the Yemen war, before quitting the coalition in recent years.
The Houthi rebels seized the town of Turbah on Sunday, shortly before the internationally recognized government announced a major military operation against them.
The escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has revived Yemen’s civil war after a four-year ceasefire.
Turbah sits on a main road linking the provincial capital of Taiz with the port city of Aden, which serves as an interim seat of Yemen's government. Over the years, the town was a major post for the government forces defending Taiz against the Houthis.
Earlier, the Houthis seized several villages and areas on Taiz's outskirts in a series of advances, paving the way for the rebels to encircle Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city.
The Houthis made a swift push on the country's western coast on the Red Sea in early September. They captured the strategic city of Mokha and several Red Sea islands, gains that enabled them to control the Yemeni side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial chokepoint through which 12% of global trade transits.
In its announcement Sunday, the Saudi-backed government said it was mobilizing troops across government-held areas.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of the ruling Presidential Leadership Council, said in a televised speech that the operations were aiming at “recovering the remaining territories” controlled by the Houthis. He called on the international community to provide support to his government.
Hours after al-Alimi’s declaration, a Saudi military spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, vowed “full operational support” to the Yemeni government forces, until the Houthis are “eliminated.”
Al-Malki also stressed Saudi Arabia’s right to take all necessary measures to deter the rebels who continued to fire missiles and drones at the kingdom as part of the nearly three-month escalation that revived Yemen’s civil war.
On Monday, factions allied with the Saudi-backed coalition fighting the Houthis said they launched offensives against the rebels on the eastern flank of the coastal areas that the Houthis had seized in their latest advances.
They attacked Houthi positions in the town of Dhubab, on the coast of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, said Col. Majed al-Nazili, spokesman for the Saudi-backed forces.
The Giants Brigades, a government-allied group, said it began a “decisive military operation against the Houthi militias,” also in the Bab el-Mandeb area.
Al-Alimi said in a post on X on Monday that the operation — dubbed “Yemen Dawn” — has started with the aim of “restoring state institutions, liberating" Sanaa, Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital, and ending "the Houthi terrorist militia coup.”
Al-Nazili said government forces were carrying out a “strategic offensive” on Sanaa. The Houthi media office reported multiple airstrikes by the Saudi coalition on their territories, including Sanaa.
The latest flare-up began in mid-July, when the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing the airport in Sanaa to prevent the landing of an unauthorized Iranian flight. The rebels responded with missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government forces in the country.
They also announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea and attacked several Saudi-linked vessels.
Then in September, they intensified their campaign, storming down the Red Sea coast in their biggest land grab in years.
The rebels' taking of Turbah “will likely severely constrain Yemeni government-aligned forces’ ability to reinforce and resupply front-line positions” across Taiz province and the provincial capital of Taiz, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
“Disrupting resupply has military value, of course, but controlling all the roads in and out of areas to the north of Turbah also prevents government forces from retreating out of the city,” the think tank wrote in a Sunday analysis.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern stronghold, capturing Sanaa and forcing the government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. The war created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters and killed more than 150,000 people.
The latest bout of violence has killed at least 959 people and wounded over 4,200 others, according to the World Health Organization. The flare-up forced about 174,097 people to flee their homes inside Yemen, according to the U.N. migration agency. More than 3,000 others fled across the waters into Djibouti, the agency reported.
Last week, Yemen’s health ministry — part of the internationally recognized government — warned about the conflict’s impact on health facilities and medical staff across Taiz province. The ministry said in a statement on Friday that health facilities in coastal, western and southern areas of the province have closed or are barely partially functioning.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
A tea seller pours milk from a can as he prepares tea at a market in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Yemeni civilians celebrate while riding in the back of a pickup truck in the Bani Matar district, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, as they follow a convoy carrying Houthi prisoners freed in Mokha on its way to Sanaa following the Houthi takeover of the southern Red Sea port city. (AP Photo/STR)
A man walks inside a damaged sponge factory in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
